Israel and Iran. Two countries that are not only friendly with India but have business interests with us. But they are also antagonistic to each other.
The Arun Gopalan-directed Tehran (the capital city of Iran where a substantial part of the action takes place here) is a delayed film that was originally to release in 2023. The reason it has become an OTT release (on Z5, nee Zee5) can be only guessed at. But the fact remains that the feel is of a docu-drama more than of a feature film.
Which, by itself, is fine as the film is “inspired by true events” as the standard cliché in such semi-fictional movies goes. But the narrative’s downside is that it gets more than a little convoluted and since some characters (actors shown as either Israelis or Iranians) look more or less similar (the correct word, I think, is stereotypical!) the script does get a shade overwhelming if not confusing. Despite a fairly fast pace and a crisp runtime of 115 minutes.
Though we have a strongly inserted Indian connection, the film becomes as irrelevant as Anubhav Sinha’s Anek (2022), a distant study of the North-East situation, became for the Indian audience. At base (and at best!), this is the story of a Special Cell officer’s revenge. The story is based in 2012 when Israeli diplomats were attacked on Indian soil. Iran and Israel are carrying out operations against each other. In response to Israel’s moves, Iran kills Israeli nuclear scientists in Georgia and Bangkok. But when an Israeli diplomat is killed in Delhi in his car through a bomb blast, a poor girl selling flowers dies too.
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Special Cell officer Rajeev Kumar (John Abraham) takes over the case. There is pressure on him to hand over the case to RA&W because of the international ramifications. But Rajeev feels that since the attack happened on Indian soil and, more importantly, an innocent Indian kid also got killed, it is he who will take action. Rajeev decides to go to Iran, with his assistant Divya (Manushi Chhillar) and one more officer, to eliminate Afshar Hosseini (Hadi Khanjanpour), the man responsible for the blast. against the orders of his own department.
In the end, he is hunted by Iran, deserted by Israel and disowned by India in his relentless uphill battle for justice and to show the inimical forces that India cannot be taken for granted as a battleground for their battles.
Apart from an otherwise-complex narrative, the storytelling also turns quite simplistic and more than a little trope-ridden as ‘convenient’ friends and enemies turn up for Rajeev on foreign shores. The motivation for a man like Rajeev to take an innocent girl’s death so personally that he can put both his life and job on the line is also a shade difficult to digest.
John Abraham as Rajeev looks hassled, harangued and correctly disturbed while remaining low-key rather than ferocious. The climax wherein he tackles Afshar is also executed in a rather far-fetched manner and John does look a bit too expressionless and indifferent!
All the other actors have nothing much to do though, and Manushi Chhillar, Neeru Bajwa, Madhurima Tuli (in a near reprise of her miniscule ‘wife-of-an-agent’ role in the 2015 Baby), Alyy Khan, Ido Samuel, Dinkar Sharma, Quashik Mukherjee, Dharmesh Jain and Elnaaz Norouzi get by. Only Allon Sylvain makes a mark as Afshar’s faithful aide, Syed.
There is only forgettable song composed by Tanishk Bagchi and a functional background score by Ketan Sodha. But the dialogues do connect with their realness. Technically at par, the film could have done with some skilled editing. Director Arun Gopalan has a Kabir Khan-like yen for real-meets-reel subjects handled like docu-dramas, but must work on a connect with audiences, firstly in subject selection and then in execution. In short, he needs to go the Kabir Khan way rather than on the Anubhav Sinha trail!
All in all, an average drama.
Rating: **1/2
Z5 presents Maddock Films’, Pacific Worldwide Films’ & Bake My Cake Films’ Tehran Produced by: Dinesh Vijan, Shobhna Yadav & Sandeep Leyzell Directed by: Arun Gopalan Written by: Bindni Karia, Ashish P. Verma & Ritesh Shah Music: Tanishk Bagchi Starring: John Abraham, Manushi Chhillar, Neeru Bajwa, Madhurima Tuli, Alyy Khan, Elnaaz Norouzi, Dinkar Sharma, Quashik Mukherjee, Ido Samuel, Ashwin Kaushal, Hadi Khanjanpour, Allon Sylvain & others